Innovative Solar Power Feed-In Tariff Program Approved in Gainesville, Fla.

A couple of months back I wrote about how Gainesville, Florida was looking into enacting a solar power feed-in tariff modeled on the type of renewable energy promotion schemes used widely in Europe, but sparingly in the United States. Good news, Gainesville Regional Utilities has announced that the Gainesville City Commission has unanimously approved the plan:Under the program, electric customers who generate electricity from solar panels sell all of the electricity they generate back into the grid and are paid a fixed, above market-rate price for it. The costs of administering the program, and encouraging greater adoption of solar power are spread across all consumers of electricity.

Customers to be Paid 32 Cents Per kWh If, as expected, the Florida Public Service commission approves it, GRU customers will be able to sign up for the program from March 1. If they sign up within the first two years they will receive a price guarantee of $0.32 per kWh for 20 years.

In Germany, the additional price paid for electricity amounts to a bit over $3 per month. Feed-in tariffs are widely regarded as being less expensive to administer than the more usual (in the US) net-metering, and more effective at encouraging adoption of solar power.